


The Locus Quattuor

by valdemort



Series: The Blessed of Hogwarts [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Could Be Canon, Dark Magic, Elemental Magic, F/M, Fawkes is kind of a Dick, Hogwarts Guardian Creatures, M/M, Magical Tattoos, Manipulative Dumbledore, Marauders' Era, sort of AU but also
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:40:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8355613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valdemort/pseuds/valdemort
Summary: ::Well, well, well,:: Fawkes trilled, and surprisingly enough Lily could understand him. ::I dare say it's been a good 2-3 centuries since the last group of blessed ones managed this. The Heads appear to have chosen well this time. Nicely done.::

 
Lily, Severus, Xenophilius, and Pandora find themselves unexpectedly gifted with an array of new magical abilities and powers, and try and make sense of them and the responsibilities that go along with said powers. All while still maintaining the heavy workload of their last three years of Hogwarts, and at least in the first two's case dodging the (not always wanted) attentions of the Marauders. 
Starts immediately after the first fic in this series and runs to the end of the First Voldemort War.





	1. 1 - It Begins

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N: Though I'd recommend you read the first story in the series before this one, here's the last section abbreviated for reference since this story starts immediately after the previous (a "previously on...", if you will). Reposting in italics, below.**
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
> 
> Un-beta'd, not Brit-picked

_Lily woke slowly from a dream of pain and power, blood and brilliant magic. Bright, harsh light filtered in through the windows hinting that the day was well underway for most of the students, and the harsh smells in the air indicating that somehow she’d ended up in the infirmary. There were once-vivid images and impressions that quickly flitted away, as so many dreams before had. This one seemed to be part nightmare, but something about it was also reassuring throughout it all. But soon it was gone, and the memory turned glittery dust in the light of day. She felt different somehow though, more alive, the world a bit brighter and more vivid. If the light and shadows were right, she could swear she could see some of the wards and magic built into the objects and areas around her, but they disappeared when she blinked. Huh, odd._

_The mediwitch bustled up to her and handed her a couple of potions to take, which she did, “How are you feeling, my dear?”_

_“Tired, and my head feels full of cotton. What happened?”_

_“Fine, fine, that’s normal,” Madame Pomfrey replied, nodding to herself. “All normal, nothing to worry about. It’ll pass, you’re just starting to come into your magic, don’t worry my dear. Oh, and don’t worry about your classes, you'll be out of here later today, and back to your usual schedule come Monday. You too, Severus dear, you should be out of here with no issue soon as well. You're both quite lucky it's a weekend.” She bustled away to check on the other patients before Lily could ask any other questions._

_Lily nodded, that seemed perfectly reasonable, right? After all who’d know better than the mediwitch? That was her job. She turned her head and looked over her shoulder at Severus, who lay in the bed next to hers. He had plucked the sprig of eucalyptus from the vase next to his bed and was staring at it, seemingly fascinated._

_“Severus?” Lily said, catching his attention._

_“Mmm?” he replied absently, still fairly distracted by the plant._

_“What’s that on your wrist?” she asked, pulling herself up in bed to try and leaning forward, to try and take a better look at the apparent design._

_Severus’ head snapped up and the plant fell out of his hand. “Wait, what?” He pulled back the sleeve of his hospital robe and Lily could see a band of continuously falling snow encircling his wrist, but only appearing once it had landed on his skin. “Strange…” Hopping off the bed and grabbing her own arm, he pulled back her sleeve and exclaimed, “Wait, look at yours!”_

_Flames licked around her own wrist, almost mesmerizing in their dance, a slightly warm comfortable buzz along her skin. Severus’ fingers stroked along her skin, fascinated. They looked at each other and she mused aloud, “Wonder what this means?”_

_A small smile quirked on his lips, “I imagine we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we.”_

~o~O~o~

After their little conversation Lily shoo’d Severus back to his bed before Pomfrey noticed. She didn’t think that Pomfrey would throw a fit, but she wanted to keep whatever this was under wraps. She did however finally look over at the other two occupants in the wing. They seemed familiar, and not just because they were in her year and therefore in some of of her classes. Something about them tickled the back of her mind, but skittered away at mental prodding—another time, then. 

However she did study their faces to lock them into memory and she could see trails of magical energy around their wrists as well (that was going to take some getting used to, especially since the sight wasn’t steady or consistent at all). So, it seemed that whatever had happened to Sev and her, these two were in a similar situation. Only the barest bit of color peeked from under the sleeves of their hospital gowns so she couldn’t see details, but she could tell that they were different colors and designs from the two that she’d seen clearly. Whatever it was, the magic clearly wasn’t fading so she figured she’d have time later to puzzle this out. Not now though, not with the audience of Mme. Pomfrey and the others in the hospital as an audience. 

As she was looking over at them, the Ravenclaw boy—Xenophilius, perhaps?—met her gaze, looked to where she was staring and looked down at his own wrist, surprise flickering in his gaze. He peeled back his sleeve slightly before turning to ask her about it, but she gave a soft sound in negation and shook her head slightly, mouthing “later”. He nodded, catching on quickly and pulled his sleeve back down to cover the mark before putting a finger to his lips towards the other girl, the Hufflepuff, when she looked to see what they were up to and Pomfrey’s back was turned. 

This wasn’t just “magical maturation” like the mediwitch had said, that’s for damn sure. And until she could get some answers she had the feeling this would be best kept to as few people as possible—starting with just this little group of four seemingly affected by whatever this was that had happened. 

~o~O~o~

Minerva debated with herself, torn over what she should do. Normally she wouldn’t have cared as much and would have preferred the students to be kept as innocent and out of harms way as possible, but with the threat of war and unrest on the horizon, any skills she could help hone in the aid of magic herself would be helpful. 

That, and she really did care about her students, even if she usually came across as stern and unfeeling. 

With a sigh, she penned a note and sent it via one of the school owls that tended to hang around her office for just such duties. 

> _Lily, come see me after Mme. Pomfrey releases you from the infirmary tonight._
> 
> _Sincerely,  
>  Professor Minerva McGonagall_

She just hoped this wouldn’t come back to bite her on the arse, later. 

~o~O~o~

Late that afternoon they’d been released from the infirmary one by one with instructions to take it easy for the foreseeable future, since they'd likely feel weak for a while. They were also informed that they needed to take the regimen of supplemental potions that would appear automatically at meals this week, to help their magical cores recover further and boost their energy levels. 

Since it was a Saturday Lily couldn’t figure why she’d been called to Prof. McGonagall office, since she didn’t have any classes to make up. So if it wasn’t about schoolwork missed, what then? Probably just her Head of House checking up on her after the weird hospital stay Lily surmised. Then a thought struck Lily—maybe the Professor had answers. Could she trust her to be frank and honest with her though? By silent agreement the four had already decided to keep fairly hush about the weird markings and hospital situation, though the fact that they were in the hospital itself would soon become somewhat public knowledge, just hopefully not why. But this was her head of house, her parent away from home and magical adviser essentially, surely if anyone she could trust her? She decided then that she’d play it by ear, see how things went. 

Lily knocked on Professor McGonagall’s office door and heard a “come in,” from inside. Walking in, she said, “Hello Professor, you wanted to see me?” 

“Yes, Miss Evans, have a seat. I heard you were in the medical ward today, how are you feeling now?” 

Lily blinked, flashes of dark cloaks and chanting voices surrounding her, coldness and pain and power. The voices almost familiar, on the edge of recognition… and then it flitted away, replaced by a bright flaring of runes and magic colors around various locations in the office, before dimming abruptly and almost becoming non-visible. She shook her head slightly, “Apparently still a bit dazed and fuzzy headed, Professor,” she replied, to which the professor made an understanding noise, but otherwise just listened and watched. Lily pondered how much to tell her, after all things weren’t exactly behaving normally anymore. Madame Pomfrey obviously didn’t think or didn’t want to admit that much was wrong, so she certainly couldn’t be trusted to help sufficiently. And if McGonagall could indeed help them… Lily sucked in a deep breath and blurted out the words before she lost her courage to do so. “Professor? I think something’s wrong with me, with us.” 

Professor McGonagall straightened up in her chair and looked like she was going to reply, but before she could do so Lily barreled on. “Well, maybe not wrong because it’s actually kind of nifty and interesting but it’s also more than a little weird and disconcerting but something’s definitely not normal and I think something might have happened to us last night since I think I’m seeing things now and _these_ were definitely not there before,” Lily concluded in a wave of words before sucking in a huge breath, and thrust her bared wrist forward for the professor to view. 

McGonagall blinked a few times before her brain apparently caught up with the word-vomit, various emotions flickering quickly over her face but they were too fleeting to identify accurately, though not all were pleasant. Lily sat there silently for a bit, panting, and she could feel prickles behind her eyes as she started second guessing herself, fearing she’d made a mistake. 

The Professor breathed out, barely audible, “Oh, my poor dear,” before continuing louder and much clearer, “I think I can be of assistance Miss Evans, though let’s take that a bit slower, shall we?” Lily nodded in reply, hopeful. “Might I see your wrist?” Lily stood up and walked over to the desk, and held out her arm. “Hmm, fascinating,” said McGonagall as she took Lily’s hand carefully to steady her arm, but did not touch the fiery design itself. “And did I hear you right, that there’s more than one of you with similar circumstances?” 

Lily hesitated but then nodded, figuring she’d already let that slip, and if the professor could help her maybe she could do the same for the others as well. “Yeah, me and Sev and the other two that were in the hospital wing with us. Xenophilius and Pandora, I think?” 

“Sev, Mr. Severus Snape you mean?” to which Lily nodded in reply. McGonagall released her hand and leaned back in her chair, thinking. “So Lily, what exactly has changed do you think, besides that?” she asked, pointing at her wrist. 

“Well… My skin feels tight and too warm, my head feels weird, and I think I’m seeing things sometimes. But it’s not all the time, and it’s odd. Pretty, usually, and colorful. But odd,” said Lily, gesturing around her haphazardly. She very purposefully did not mention the weird dream-like, flashback-like visions she had, some instinct indicating that those were one detail probably best left unsaid, at least for now. Those were still too new, too unsettling, that she really didn’t want to think about them right now let alone tell anyone else about it. Except maybe Sev, she’d have to see. 

“And the other students? What about them?” McGonagall prompted. 

“Well, I’m not entirely sure since we didn’t really talk, but Sev at least was looking at the plant cutting by our bed oddly, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the others felt off as well in some way. From what I could tell we all had designs of some sort on our wrists—Sev had snow falling on his, I mean it looked like he had a bracelet of continually forming snowfall. I didn’t get a chance to see the others’ closely yet, though.” 

“Fascinating, they said… but I didn’t…,” said Professor McGonagall to herself, deep in thought, before clearing her throat and regaining her poise. “Thank you for telling me, Miss Evans. And you’re right, I should be able to assist the four of you. I’ll likely ask the assistance of at least some of the other heads of house, depending on the various new skills that you all have need to develop, but I think it best if we keep the group small. We don’t want to draw too much undue attention to you four. In fact,” she started, motioning for Lily’s hand again. With a flick of her wand the band of dancing flames disappeared from sight, though Lily could still feel the mark on her skin so she figured it was just a glamour of some sort. She smiled up at her professor, grateful. “I’ll show you later how to do that yourself and how to remove the glamour, should you choose. As for the rest, for now I think it best if you started practicing meditation.” 

“Meditation? Like what monks and such do?” Lily asked. 

McGonagall blinked in surprise or confusion, then nodded. “Something like that, yes, but it’s helpful for honing certain kinds of magical abilities as well. Matters of fine control and detail especially, and many mental magics. Here,” she took a book from the bookshelf next to her, flipped through it briefly to check something and marked a couple pages, then handed it over to Lily. “Read that, particularly chapters 6 through 8, which I’ve marked, and start working on the exercises in 6 right away, the sooner the better. That should help. I’ll also check in with the others, I imagine they’ll need much the same.” 

Lily nodded and idly flipped through the book, noticing it was on various mental and magical self-discipline arts and theories. Hopefully it would help, otherwise these odd auras and visual flares would get old, real quick. 

Her professor looked her straight in the eye and cleared her throat, getting Lily’s attention. “Lily. This is very important. Do not talk about this with any other students besides the four of you, alright? They won’t understand, and it might even be dangerous. Also, only talk about this to myself or Professors Sprout, Flitwick, or Slughorn. No other teachers or staff here. Do I make myself clear?” 

“Yes Professor. Not the Headmaster?” Lily asked, somewhat surprised. 

She shook her head, “No, he wouldn’t understand and might also make things worse. Just… please trust me on this one, Lily. When I or my colleagues talk to the others, they’ll be told the same thing.” 

This was a little odd Lily thought, but on the most part her professor seemed to know what she was talking about, and she’d trust her for now, at least until she had a better hold of what was going on. Thankfully she was free to talk with the other three students, though, that was something. And Professor Flitwick, she liked him a lot too, that was good. And Sprout was nice—if they were involved in this, it couldn’t be all bad, could it? But… Lily had to ask, “Something’s not wrong with me—with us, is there?” 

“Not wrong my dear, just different. Something special. You’ve a new normal you’ll need to get used to, is all.” 

“So this isn’t going away then, is it,” Lily surmised, not really asking as a question. 

“No. Just something to temper, to develop. Think of it as new skills to hone, another aspect of your magic to figure out and learn,” reassured McGonagall. 

Lily nodded and said, “Thank you professor. I think I’ll go now, if that’s okay. I’ve a lot to think about, plus the book to start reading, and I’m still tired.” 

“Of course. You can always talk to me about this, you know where to usually find me. Also, we’ll probably set up some sort of tutoring sessions here soon for the four of you, to assist you all in this transition, so be warned. How many and for how long will depend on how well you all manage to stabilize.” 

Nodding, Lily grabbed the book and left the office, her head now spinning with information as well as the odd sensations that hadn’t really ever left. Bed sounded really good right now, even if it was still a couple of hours before curfew and a Saturday night with not much homework assigned yet. The tower would be hopping, but a few privacy and muffling charms later and she'd likely have no issue falling fast asleep.

~o~O~o~  


Minerva floo called Filius as soon as she was sure that Lily was gone and secured her office against eavesdropping spells and the like. "Filius, it worked!" she called out through the flames when the connection went through. 

"Hold on Minerva, what's this now?" Filius replied. "Let me come through so we can talk properly." 

Once they were both comfortably seated in her office with cups of tea she continued the conversation. "The ritual, it worked like the tome said it might." 

"What do you mean it worked, the forest accepted everything just fine last night. What are you talking about?"

Minerva shook her head, "No, no, not just that. Lily was just in here, telling me that she's seeing magical traces, and that they've all developed magical markings. I saw hers—it was a living flame, Filius." 

"Really now?" Filius exclaimed, bouncing in his chair like he was was a kid again. "Oh! That's exciting. Anyone else?" 

"She said Mr. Snape was acting odd as well, nothing about the others, but she may also not know yet. I said we'd conferring with them." 

"Yes, yes, of course of course. How delightful! Do you think—?" 

"Filius," Minerva scolded him, "you know it's too soon to tell." 

"Right, right," Filius said, still bouncing. "Still, exciting! And to think we were here to witness, to participate, instigate even!" 

Minerva scowled at him and replied in her best 'disappointed teacher' voice, "Aye, we were. I do hope they never remember last night Merlin's beard, I wish _I_ didn't remember. The poor children, what we put them through…" 

Filius replied, thankfully acting serious now, "True. But necessary." 

She nodded, "And hopefully more good can come from that, than whatever trauma results from that evening."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments are love :)


	2. 2 - Snakes and Sight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> §Parseltongue§  
> ::Other magical creature speech::  
> Usual disclaimers apply.

“Merlin, I want to just hex them to hell and back,” Severus muttered to himself out loud, back in his private Slytherin dorm room some early October Saturday afternoon, after a particular vexing encounter with Potter and his cronies. He lay back on his bed trying to relax, staring vacantly in the direction of the carvings on the upper rails on his four poster bed, his attention more internal than at the carvings though. “I don’t know what she sees in them, especially that _Potter_ ,” he said, spitting the last word. “Poncy bastard.” 

§Want us to bite him, Speaker?§ Severus heard in a hissing voice, and then the snake carving twisted around to look at him, flicking its tongue. 

§Whoa! What the bloody fuck?! You can talk,§ exclaimed Severus. 

§So can you, Speaker,§ said the snake. 

Severus paused for a bit, his brain finally catching up with what the snake was saying, what _he_ had just said. §This isn’t English, is it,§ he stated, already pretty sure of the answer but needing to make sure. 

§No.§

§I’m a parselmouth,§ he confirmed, amazed. 

§You are a speaker,§ the snake carving confirmed. §We ask again, want us to bite him?§ 

§What? No,§ Severus blurted out, then thought about that more carefully. §No, that would draw unwanted attention if the castle suddenly did that. Don’t bite him, or move in front of them. However… can you keep an eye on them, on the so-called Marauders? Let me know if they’re planning something against me? Or for that matter, anything you hear them planning?§ 

§Yes, we are everywhere,§ said the bedpost carving snake. 

§Master Speaker Salazar made sure of it,§ said the pewter snake framing the mirror. 

§Extra sets of eyes and ears, for monitoring and protection. We will observe and report,§ continued the first. Severus was pleasantly surprised and impressed by Salazar’s integration of the subtle spies and guardians, though he couldn't say he was surprised at all. Now that he was aware, he’d have to keep a closer eye out for the hidden snakes. He knew the dungeons and certainly the Slytherin common room and dorm were littered with them, but no reason they were exclusive to the lower levels. Hmm, those could be damn useful. 

§But the tower of the winged lions is mostly blind to us,§ said the pewter one sadly. 

§The original lion purged the ones in rage when our creator left after their fight,§ concluded the wooden snake.

§Mmm, makes sense, unfortunately. Spread the word to the other snakes in the castle, if you would—don’t behave differently around me than you would any other student, unless it’s an emergency. I want to keep this a secret,§ Severus stated. 

The wooden snake blinked and flicked out its tongue, §You are ashamed, Speaker?§ 

§No!§ Severus said quickly. §Knowledge is power, and so are secrets. The others don’t deserve to know.§ The snake gave a happy hiss at that and bobbed its head in reply. §Also, you have my express permission to bite anyone who tries messing with my stuff, here in this room.§ 

§Gladly, Speaker, with pleasure. We are yours to command.§ 

~o~O~o~

Xeno was actually the one that had actually discovered the seemingly abandoned classroom first, a place perfect for them to meet and practice their… special lessons in relative peace, especially for members of all opposite houses. Somewhere away from prying eyes and gossiping students that couldn't know what they were up to, or what had happened to them. His discovery probably had something to do with his new knack for discovering the hidden, and seeing the normally unseeable. Or so they surmised at least. Severus was impressed, it appeared to have originally been intended for a smaller class of some sort, most likely an upper year elective. One side had a couple of round tables with a half-dozen chairs around each. The other side of the room had comfortable armchairs around a coffee table, for more casual discussions, though the entire room was carpeted—somewhat of an anomaly in most of the classrooms in this castle, or at least the ones they were more familiar with with their day-to-day schooling.

As they had for the past month or so, the four students were gathered for their weekly study session and get together. Though they called it a study session, usually at least part of the meeting devolved into a friendly social gathering. Severus was surprised at first, he didn't know if the others were or not though, because normally he'd never expect members of all separate houses to get along this well. Though he supposed being thrown into common circumstances like this would certainly help break down much of the normal inter-house animosity. In this at least, they were their own group, and when they met the houses each belonged to didn't quite so important socially. Their relations outside of their private meetings were less outwardly friendly though, which suited Severus just fine. 

On their first meet up after they had left the hospital wing, they spent a good hour or more just studying each other's new markings since this was the first real chance they'd had without worrying about being interrupted or observed. These elemental bands were around their wand-arm wrists, and appeared to be magical tattoos of some sort and of sudden unknown origin, all appearing that same late evening or early morning before they woke in the hospital wing. That same time period that none of them seemed to have any tangible memories of, much to their mutual dismay and frustration. 

So once they had the time and private space to themselves, curiosity got the better of them and they couldn't help but to get a good look at the tattoos, finding that indeed all four of them were moving representations of each of the four elements. The bands even were somewhat tactile, the sensations hinting at the respective element if you touched them, though none of them painful in any way. Also, in less than a month or so they'd all managed to get the teachings down from Professor McGonagall's book well enough to have reasonable enough control on the unexpected abilities they'd all immediately noticed after waking in the hospital. Severus suspected that they hadn't discovered the full scope of the effects or repercussions of that night, nor for that matter figured out what exactly had happened, other than just waking up in the hospital with little clue as to how they'd gotten there. However, he at least would keep looking for answers and he suspected at least some of the others were of a similar mindset. He'd also continue with his exercises and magical exploration to see how else he could push his newfound abilities, not seeing any reason to back away from this new not unwanted source of power. 

As Severus had discovered back in the hospital wing that day, Lily had a band of fire encircling her right wrist, the flames dancing and changing over time in both activity and color. They hadn't figured out yet however what drove their change in appearance, if there even was any reason for that matter. Sometimes the band was black with the barest hint of red, like banked coals, hardly active at all. Other times the flames were a bright orange, nearly yellow-white inferno racing around her wrist. Regardless, they were only ever warm to the touch—her own or another's—just tickling the skin slightly, the tickles more apparent when the flames were more active. 

Along with the flames, Lily's sight, much like Severus’s own, had stabilized into a constant background overlay of information that she could call to the forefront of her mind at a moment’s concentration. The overlay was always visible, it just wasn't obtrusive and could easily be ignored or overlooked if she didn't want to pay attention to it at the moment. When she did concentrate on it though, the vivid colors glowed and pulsed with life, the "real" appearance of the world now relegated to sitting in the background, the magic now the more important and demanding information at the forefront of her senses. Unlike his sight though, she could see the runes and magical energy traces identifying persistent magical effects worked into objects and onto people and places. Their bands for example, Lily said she could see a multitude of layers of energy however these layers were far too complex for her to even begin deciphering. Something more simple such as the enchantments on the Great Hall windows that allowed mail birds to pass through without issue, or the enchantment on the ceiling that allowed it to mimic the weather outside, were fairly straightforward and clear to her sight. 

Arcs of lightning crackled and snapped all along Xenophilius’s wrist, arcs forming and branching at various locations only to be replaced by others spawning from others. All sizes and shapes, some small some arcing all the way around his wrist to almost join up with the origin. If Severus got close he could smell a hint of ozone, and if he touched it it tickled and zapped him slightly, like the static electricity games he’d played in muggle grade school growing up with balloons and carpeting and such. Gray and white storm clouds moved slowly in the distance, both circling around his wrist and occasionally moving off one edge or another to appear from or disappear into apparent nowhere, the clouds lighting up inside from internal lightning, a backdrop to the arcs of lightning in the forefront. Despite the ever present light show on his skin, sound was the one sense that didn't seem to be present at all with his markings. Handy, Severus thought, especially when it came with concealing its presence—the ozone was thankfully subtle enough to not be too noticeable unless you were consciously looking for it, or possibly possessed an enhanced sense of smell like some supernatural creatures did. 

Furthermore Xeno’s sight seemed to be focused on him now being able to see and sense objects and beings normally unseen and hidden. That was how he’d found this handy room in the first place within a week of their release from the hospital. He just _knew_ that that there was a hidden doorway of some sort behind the wall and it was connected to that particular wall sconce. Didn’t take long to figure out how to trigger it to open, there were only so many different things one could do with a trick. With some, rather fun in Severus's opinion, experimentation they figured out that he could see through most disillusionment spells and other similar charms and objects as well, a rather handy little trick. It was a good couple of weeks before he was able to keep from getting distracted by little mystery beings flitting around everywhere, even though most of them Severus couldn’t sense at all and kept having to remind himself to not dismiss their existence entirely. Just because he couldn’t see them, didn’t mean they didn’t exist. And it’s not like there wasn’t a precedence for magical animals that most people couldn’t see but still existed—thestrals, for example. Xeno did manage to lose most of the permanently-distracted look he had that first month or so during classes and conversations with others, however his attention span, especially during something he considered boring, never did seem to recover. And Merlin help the poor person who relied on too much small talk and other inane drivel in their conversations, Xeno would just up and leave or completely shut out and ignore the other person if leaving wasn't an option. Not that Severus could blame him, he usually just didn't have the patience, period, for people like that. 

Pandora’s wrist looked like it had crystals of all colors and types continually, steadily growing on it. With the possible exception of Severus's own band hers was the most sedate in pace with its changes. For that matter, while crystals were constantly growing and then once they reached a certain size, dissolving, the main thing that changed was the particular pattern of colors and crystal structures. Sometimes there would be a large variety of shapes and colors, later one could look and it would be almost entirely one, maybe two colors and types. Like Lily's wrist, they hadn't really figured out yet any rhyme or reason as to why certain colors and arrangements would happen at various times. Also, light tended to glint off various crystal faces on her wrist depending on the angles of the light and the viewer's eyes, causing them to sparkle, as if the crystals were actually real. Thankfully this effect was hidden when the tattoo itself was under the glamour charm McGonagall had shown them. The band also felt slightly rough under his touch, slightly textured but not sharp at all and not nearly as well defined as his eyes told him they should be. The other two said that her band felt cool to them, but Severus didn’t notice any difference at all in temperature, if anything it felt slightly warm, but not quite as warm as normal skin would. 

As far as her sight, it almost bordered on somewhat controllable visions. Apparently she was able to get glimpses of events in various points in time: past, present, and future. Sometimes only flashes or impressions, sometimes more detailed scenes or information. Severus was not envious at all of her gift (or curse, he mused to himself). He surmised he’d grow quickly unstable if he was in her shoes, he never was all that comfortable with the thought of messing with time, not to mention the affects it could have on one's memory, let alone sanity. Thankfully she was able to harness hers before too long, able to pick when she was actively allowing the visions to flow through her and only the strongest, most powerful visions would strike her unbidden. She quickly came into the habit of meditating for half an hour hour or so every morning before going to breakfast, to allow her head to clear, allowing Father Time and Mother Magic to show her whatever they felt she needed to see for the day. She could also actively go searching for specific information, though the success of such varied a great deal, particularly when looking into the future. Altogether too random an ability for Severus's tastes, really. 

And of course Severus himself had his nice calm band of constantly falling snow on his left wrist, the colors only changing slightly, depending on the time of day. Brighter white with only a tinge of blue during the day, dimmer but reflecting the light of the moon or stars at night, depending on the phase of the moon. Sunrise and sunset were really when the colors came out though, pale pinks and purples and greens reflected in the white snowfall, while newly white snowflakes appeared from nowhere, shrinking slightly as they 'fell' and then joined the mat of snow below. To his own touch the tattoo was only slightly cool, however the others informed him that it definitely felt cold but not as cold as ice or snow would normally feel—especially to Lily who found the contrast even more striking, which he thought intriguing. He wondered if he found hers warmer to the touch than the others did? Without an objective way to measure that, which there really wasn't one, he just kept that thought to himself. 

Severus was rather pleased his sight took the form it did. Lily's he could have dealt with and he could see how it would be quite useful at times, but the other two's versions? No way, no thank you, they could keep them. His own magical sight overlay was focused on plants, animals, minerals, and other items potentially useful as potions ingredients. Which he now discovered was practically everything out there in the natural world. To his horror, (fascination? Unsurprised interest, if he was honest with himself?) he discovered that now also included many of the body parts and fluids of his fellow witches and wizards. He was _very_ glad when he'd been able to dim that part of the sight to the background, as much fun as his vindictive self had thinking about ways to put Black's body to better use than he was apparently using it himself, thinking of _Lily_ the same way was a train of thought he squashed rather abruptly and did NOT want to think about again. Ever. But before he'd managed to dim his sight consistently when around other students and his professors, he'd noticed some peculiarities about certain people, which might be worth pursuing at some point for (non potion-related, he told himself) reasons. Hagrid the grounds-keeper and Professors Flitwick he could guess why they appeared different, they had some rather obvious, recent creature hybrid blood likely running through their veins. Why Lupin looked different he wasn't sure about though, and that was peculiar in a way Severus didn't much like. 

While he’d always been skilled at potions, however now his understanding had magnified 100 fold, it just came… easy, though no less fascinating. If it could be possible the subject was even more interesting now, since the possibilities and potential for creating new and improved potions went from something he'd like to work on one day to an art, an obsession just waiting for him to delve into and crack open. It was also painfully obvious which cuttings and specimens were more magically potent than others, and how to better prepare ingredients to improve their efficacy. Not to mention the idiocy of many of the potions in their textbooks, things to add and ways to change the recipes to improve them were crystal clear and Severus had taken to writing extensive notes and annotations in his potions textbooks, making a more permanent reference for the improvements he’d make. He didn’t bother sharing his corrections with anyone else though, if they couldn’t figure it out on their own (not to mention if the professor himself didn’t know) they didn’t deserve to find out from him and attempt to ride along on his coattails. 

Furthermore, there was his newfound parseltongue knowledge which he'd only recently discovered by accident and still amazed him. That skill was the stuff of legends in Slytherin house, and he could probably milk that power if he played it right. However, once leaked it could never be obscured again, and it would likely quickly spread from his own house to all the others, where it would not be so appreciated, despite Slytherin being more circumspect in their gossip than the others. As loyal as his house-mates were towards each other and against the other houses, it would only take one student to leak it out to someone else and that would be that. So for now, he would be keeping that secret from _everyone_. There was also the not-so-small detail that the only other known Parselmouth was the Dark Lord Voldemort himself, and Severus _really_ didn't word of his newfound ability to get out to Him. Which he knew if certain people in his house found out, word would quickly make its way there in short order. 

In addition to their specialized sight variants, all of them appeared to share one, which Severus had heard of other powerful witches and wizards having in the past but wasn't by any means common. The four of them also now had an increased aptitude for seeing or sensing active magical flows, such as when someone was actively casting, and residual after effects from particularly potent or strong spells, or echos of spells done by powerful casters. Partly they could see hints of what the spells themselves were, but also traces of the signatures of the wizard or witch that had cast it. This magical sight they shared would for one certainly help with creation of new spells, another interest of his, (after his love of potions, of course), that Pandora seemed to be even more avid about than he was. In fact, all of them had begun the habit of writing down their various findings their sight had given them, not just Severus: Lily and her new and improved ideas for charms, the fascinating creatures Xeno was discovering, and Pandora's visions and hints of the various flows of time plus her thoughts on new spell creation. 

The other thing they all agreed on was the need to keep this secret. This, they’d confirmed and promised each other officially on their very first meeting. It turned out the only ones that had talked to them directly about the immediate aftereffects of… whatever it was that had happened… were Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, and that was only early on, just enough to get a handle on the sight and be able to conceal the new markings from the rest of the school. Even for the two that didn't belong to either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, those two professors were the only ones they discussed anything with. Severus's (rather pathetic, really) discussion with his own head of house was nothing more than a "How are you feeling my boy, heard you were in the infirmary?" "Fine, sir, just a bit of a headache that's now gone," and that was that.

After the first couple of weeks and the initial direction they received from those two professors—not a whole lot more than that initial book from McGonagall, really—they managed amongst themselves and didn’t mention their explorations or changes at all with them anymore. So far the professors seemed to be content with letting the matter lie as is, once the students reassured them that their headaches had disappeared and the developed magical sights (that they were aware of) had stabilized enough to not be problematic at all. Severus was paranoid, Xeno cautious, and Pandora had advised them from flashes of visions that telling _anyone_ would “cause pain and be very bad”. Lily seemed happy enough defer to the others' opinions on this matter, though she was slightly miffed at not being able to tell her James but appeared to understand why she couldn’t. Not that Potter and company would even believe her about half of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go, now there's actually something for you to sink your teeth into a bit, so to speak. :)  
> Next chapter likely up in the next week or two, depending on how quickly I can get the holes filled and the rest edited for posting. In-story time between sections is going to start moving a bit quicker now, for the most part.


End file.
